Life in America: Greater Comforts, Smaller Souls?

Sometimes when I sit in a congregation with flat screen TVs and indoor coffee shops, I wonder if we American Christians actually have as much to offer global Christians as we think we do?

As our houses get bigger and our comforts get grander, are our souls feeling smaller and our joy weaker? Have we increasingly become a product of the American Dream to the point of confusing blessing with wealth and curse with poverty?

As we look to the Lausanne Congress, I actually believe that now is the greatest time for us to humbly reach out to the rest of the world and ask them to teach us something about the gospel. It will be a hard thing to do. As Americans, we naturally exude confidence and power, and most cultures will defer to our preferences, our teaching styles and our influence. It will take willful intentionality to remove ourselves from the spotlight of influence and invite our brothers and sisters from other nations to share with us. And we can’t expect to be comfortable with what they will have to offer.

The more I have interacted with global Christians, the more tension I feel about some of the messages and convictions that were delivered to me in my home churches. By interacting with Christian communities in Africa, I have realized that Jesus is bigger than the American construct we have given Him and we should listen to what those who live on less than a dollar a day have to say about Jesus. Because out of poverty, uncertainty, danger and destitution, they are crying for and worshiping a Jesus I hardly understand, but One I want to know better.

In my line of work, I often get asked how the gospel is shared with communities in Africa. I usually have to inform people that the gospel is always shared, and the communities are the ones sharing it with me. It throws people off sometimes, but the more I interact with the rest of the world, the more convinced I am that we as American Christians are missing some of the most fundamental understandings and lifestyles that Jesus would desire us to live out. As a globalizing church, we have much to offer one another, congregation to congregation, nation to nation. My prayer is that the exchange of sharing will embody a spirit of mutuality and learning.

At the age of 22, Jena Lee Nardella founded Blood: Water Mission alongside the band Jars of Clay. Jena has  been featured in Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, and the documentary film, Sons of Lwala. Her collaborative writing includes Hope in the Dark, Zealous Love, and The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World. She serves on the board for the Center for Nonprofit Management and the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. Jena is a graduate of Whitworth University with a degree in Political Studies. She and her husband live in Nashville and travel often to Africa.

This week (June 10), Jena will be part of The Saddleback Conversation at the Lake Forest Campus. Registration is still open. The conversation will also be streamed live. Panelists include Rick Warren, Doug Birdsall, Kay Warren, Jim Belcher, Dr. Michael Horton, Miles McPherson, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah and Skye Jethani (Moderator).